Oct. 27, 2013, 3 a.m. Jason McIntyre's autoimmune system is dead. The rest of him isn't feeling much better. Eleven days ago he underwent an aggressive chemotherapy, not for the sake of killing cancer - but to knock out every skerrick of protection his body has against infection. Sitting in a freezer were 35 million stem cells that were shaken from Mr McIntyre's bone marrow by a combination of drugs. These were filtered from his blood about three weeks ago. That process, he says, left him with aching bones. It was his birthday. If he survives long enough - that is, if a piece of dust doesn't get in his eye and spark a fatal infection - the stem cells will this week be returned to his body, as building blocks for a brand new autoimmune system. Mr McIntyre, 37, is only the sixth patient with multiple sclerosis to undergo this experimental therapy - known as an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant - in a small trial being conducted by St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. Thousands of stem cell transplants are performed worldwide to treat certain blood cancers in patients who have become resistant to regular therapies - but the … Continue reading →

October 26, 2013 redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online A medication currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat epilepsy and migraines could also be the first drug capable of effectively treating cocaine addiction, according to new research published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Bankole A. Johnson, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and colleagues recruited 142 adults who were seeking treatment for cocaine dependence. Once accepted into the double-blind study, they were randomly given either the drug topiramate or a placebo. Using an intent-to-treat analysis, the researchers found that topiramate was more efficacious than placebo at increasing the participants weekly proportion of cocaine nonuse days and in increasing the likelihood that participants would have cocaine-free weeks, the university said Friday in a statement. Similarly, Johnsons team found a significant association between topiramate and both a decrease in craving for the drug and an improvement in the subjects overall level of functioning in comparison to a placebo. They also reported observing a few mild side-effects among those in the topiramate group, including abnormal skin-tingling sensations, distortions in taste, difficulty concentrating and anorexia. Our findings reveal that … Continue reading →

Mohammad Halabi tries to comfort his daughter, Mia, while she experiences an epileptic seizure after her arrival in Colorado Springs from New York City on Oct. 12. His wife, Miriam, brought their 2-year-old to join Halabi in Colorado Springs to see whether an oil from a special strain of marijuana would help the child. (Michael Ciaglo, The Gazette) COLORADO SPRINGS When Mohammad Halabi was a boy, his parents fled war in Lebanon to give their child a chance at life. This month, as Halabi drove to Denver International Airport to pick up his wife and 2-year-old daughter, he realized he was doing the same thing. Halabi's daughter, Mia, has severe epilepsy. Treatment by some of the country's best neurologists and with the most powerful drugs has done little. This year, doctors told him to prepare for her death. "No matter what we did, nothing helped. She just got worse until she was almost a vegetable," he said. "She had no chance at life." Then in July, he and his wife, Miriam, saw an online video of a Colorado Springs girl's astounding recovery from epilepsy using an oil made from a special strain of marijuana. The Halabis live in New York … Continue reading →

Current ratings for: Web-based autism intervention tool shows promise Ratings require JavaScript to be enabled. A new web-based intervention tool for challenging behaviors has been shown to be effective as far as its function-based intervention components are concerned, a team from CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disorders) reported in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders1. Called the "BIP Builder", it is one of the components of an online autism solution known as Skills (BIP stands for Behavioral Intervention Plan). CARD director of research and development, Jonathan Tarbox, PhD, BCBA-D, said: "We were excited to be able to evaluate a web-based tool that we hoped would be a useful and practical resource for clinicians who are in the trenches, providing effective behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder on a daily basis. Overall, we found that the tool was easy to use, and it provided information that helped clinicians write better behavior intervention plans." Challenging behaviors are common in children with autism. The authors explained that such behaviors may have a negative impact on a range of childhood outcomes. Good quality behavior intervention plans are vital for reducing challenging behaviors. However, research on evaluating practical tools for designing … Continue reading →

Oct. 25, 2013 An experimental drug called 3K3A-APC appears to reduce brain damage, eliminate brain hemorrhaging and improve motor skills in older stroke-afflicted mice and stroke-afflicted rats with comorbid conditions such as hypertension, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC. The study, which appears online today in the journal Stroke, provides additional evidence that 3K3A-APC may be used as a therapy for stroke in humans, either alone or in combination with the FDA-approved clot-busting drug therapy tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). Clinical trials to test the drug's efficacy in people experiencing acute ischemic stroke are expected to begin recruiting patients in the U.S. in 2014. "Currently, tPA is the best treatment for stroke caused by a blocked artery, but it must be administered within three hours after stroke onset to be effective," said Berislav V. Zlokovic, MD, PhD, director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (ZNI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the study's lead investigator. "Because of this limited window, only a small fraction of those who suffer a stroke reach the hospital in time to be considered for tPA. Our studies show that 3K3A-APC extends tPA's therapeutic window and counteracts tPA's tendency to induce … Continue reading →